Question about youth sports

This a little bit dear Facebook, and I'm sure I will get some hardass answers as well. Oh well.

My son is signed up in a spring basketball league, that I paid a fee of $300 for. League was advertised as an "instructional/developmental league", with equal playong time advertised. It is a rec league, not school affiliated for 8 and 9 year olds in his age group.

The best player is the coach's son. My son is maybe slightly above middle of the pack, and still learning the game. The coach plays his son the entire game, and he runs every play exclusively through his son, all the other players are instructed to just set screens for him and pass him the ball, the only time they are given the green light to shoot is maybe after an offensive rebound or a loose ball comes there way and they are wide open. In practices, they hardly work on skill development, and mostly just go over the same sets and plays that involve his son being the only primary ball handler and setting screens and/or passing him the ball to score. There are a few players that suck and he hardly even plays them or works with them. My son's main job is to set picks, get rebounds, and pass back to the coach's son.

So my issue isn't some self esteem, participation trophy, feel good shite, but my issue is we paid money and are wasting our time in a league that was advertised as "instructional", which I thought would've focused on developing skills. I am fine with trying to win games, but also feel skill development should take priority at that age, especially when all the players pay the same equal fee for the league, and the league was advertised as "instructional" with a focus on devlopment. So I'm pretty much going to ask to have him to either be moved to a different team or to get my money back or confront the coach about it and ask him why is runming things this way.

Is this a pretty normal experience with youth sports? Am I in the wrong here and teaching my son the wrong lesson by taking issue with this? I coach other sports, and hate the idea of a parent coming and bitching to me about something, I know how time consuming and the sacrifice involved, but is it fair to take issue over something like this?

I agree with the first guy to reply.

Some coaches are absurd about showcasing their kids.

I had a basketball coach and a soccer coach who didn’t do that at all, in fact the soccer coach almost went the other way. I had another basketball coach who wanted everything to go through his son, who would take 75 percent of our shots.

This was 25+ years ago, and I suspect it’s more absurd now.

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The coach plays his son the entire game, and he runs every play exclusively through his son, all the other players are instructed to just set screens for him and pass him the ball

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"Pass it to Will!"

This is the worst aspect of both Rec and competing youth sports. Only thing worse than this is competing coaches giving extra play time or deference to Little Johnny whose mom lasts for extra one on one training. Youth coaches have no idea of what an 8-9, let alone 12-13 year old will grow or evolve into from an athletic standpoint. “Career” decisions are based upon whose dad is coaching , which kid is biggest at 8-9, who pays for extra lessons, etc and then projected out for 10 years. Varsity high school coach told my wife and I , and my kid, “I don’t understand how/why he hasn’t been on the highest comp level team. He is the best at his position in two age groups. “. District coaches and other HS coaches agreed after playing against him this year at the varsity level.

Find another league or team. Watched this at a similar age level and decided to coach for the next 7-8 years. Loved it and developed all of the kids equally. Most of the kids were solid, but not 8-9 year old dominant. They are all solid varsity players today. We had a lot of success and a number of the kids are successful high school athletes. A number of them also coach middle school and Rec teams. They always thank me and my assistant coach when they see either of us. Most coaches aren’t trying to develop kids and it’s the unfortunate reality of it. Ton of money being made off of youth basketball, baseball, and soccer with very little development.

Prepare for a bunch of lame Jaxxon and Braxton comments.

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Is your son enjoying it? If he isn't, pull him out. If he is, ask the coach when he is going to start developing?

Make sure when you raise your concerns with the coach you do it as loudly and aggressively and publicly as you can. Extra points if it's in front of the kids and their parents. Double extra points if you mix in a few slurs. Triple extra points if you come to fisticuffs with the coach.

Some parents are idiots. They are not doing their kids any favors. There is a reason he is probably coaching and he is probably doing the same thing that happened to his son. Was on a team where the coaches son was getting all the shots.

That's not teaching those kids anything. Since he is stuck on a team coached by an idiot, tell him to take his shots if he feels like he is in position to get a good shot in.

If I was coaching a team playing against them and saw that they ran everything through him I would have my defense on that kid like white on rice. I don't know how complex the game is played at 8 years old, but I bet that kid will not even play HS ball. The dad will think the kid is better than he is and when the coach isn't playing him enough the kid will end up quitting.... Unless he goes to some small private school.

I bet he doesn't even coach them much on defense right?

Just whatever you do, don't do it through Facebook.

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Youth sports is a joke most of time run by cheaters

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This is so pitiful it makes me laugh. I have a nephew who just finished his 2nd year on his school's middle school team. They started in February and played their last game a week ago.

Last year he played travel ball, but is only going to play rec ball this year, but the travel ball thing. The inner workings of it all is pretty sad.

He was asked to try out for this travel team and his parents asked if he was interested and he said yes. He tries out and makes the team, but evidently there were two or three kids who didn't make it. Of course their parents was pissed and the coach was talking to the parents and saying how some parents just can't come to terms their kids are not as good as they think they are, etc.

Come to find out, the reason that team was started was because the coaches son didn't make a team in which he was telling people his kid was clearly the 3 or 4th best player and they cut him because this coach was friends with that's kid's daddy, etc.. Well.. and I hate to say this about 10 and 11 year olds, but his son was terrible.

One of the games I went to.. there was this one black kid on the team who was probably the best player on the team. He was the smallest kid on the team but he was pretty fast and caught every ball that came to him in center field. The game I was at, he was diving and making catches... So what does the coach do? Takes that kid out of center, puts his son out there and puts the little dude pitching.. Although he never really even pitched at practice.

It was as if the coach was thinking "well he is a good athlete, he can probably do it all". The kid was a horrible pitcher. His skill set wasn't for pitching. After he gave up like 4 runs, he puts him at first, sits the kid who normally plays first and put in another pitcher. The next batter hits a fly ball behind 2nd base, the coach's kid in center field calls it. Drops the ball, he picks it up and launches it to first base and it goes over the smallest player on the team's head. 2 more runs score.

The next inning was the last, the coach puts the regular 1st baseman back at first, puts the small black kid on the bench and leaves his kid in center. The only inning the other team scored was when the coach decided to put the kid who was catching everything coming to him in center field pitching and then first base.

When we were leaving I saw the little black kid's daddy kneeling in front of him and I could hear him say "what do we practice at home? Fielding and batting. Its not your fault, you are not a pitcher and shouldn't have been pitching"..

People pay for their kids to play and they are coached by retards who don't even know what positions these kids can or can't play. But his son plays short stop unless they playing a team who is hitting balls in a certain direction, then evidently he moves his kid so he can get in on the action.